Mikel Arteta offers update on William Saliba red card appeal as Arsenal boss issues demand

William Saliba was sent off just before the half-hour mark of Arsenal’s defeat to Bournemouth and is set to miss their next three games unless a successful appeal is made

Mikel Arteta will leave the decision on whether or not to appeal the red card shown to William Saliba against Bournemouth up to his bosses at Arsenal.

Saliba saw red after hauling down Evanilson just before the half-hour mark on Saturday’s defeat as the Cherries star looked to race onto Leandro Trossard’s poor pass back. The Frenchman was initially shown a yellow card by referee Rob Jones.

But VAR Jarred Gillett reviewed the incident before calling Jones over to the pitchside monitor. After the official had seen a number of replays of the incident, he upgraded Saliba’s yellow to a red card.

The Gunners would go on to fall to a 2-0 defeat to the hosts, their first loss of the season. They will also now have Saliba suspended for their next three league games, with Arteta declining to confirm whether or not an appeal will be lodged.

“I leave that more to the club to understand the circumstances. They will have to decide it,” the Arsenal boss said on Monday. “It is about perspective. We want to win in any context but the reality is we made it very difficult for ourselves.

“Another context is that we have lost one game in six months. Playing with 10 men there is obviously an issue. When you analyse the three different actions and the outcomes it’s very different. We cannot continue to play with 10 men.

“The task becomes almost impossible. We need to eradicate that. I think what happened in those three cases is nothing to do with aggression in my opinion. We want to competitive. It’s great.”

HAVE YOUR SAY! Was William Saliba’s red card the right decision? Comment below.

In a statement, the Premier League opened up on Gillet’s review. They said: “The VAR deemed that Saliba denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and recommended an on-field review. The referee then upgraded the yellow to a red card.”

If Arsenal submit an appeal, Newcastle legend Alan Shearer does not hold hope they will be successful. He told Match of the Day: “It was definitely the right decision. He [the ref] got there in the end.

“It was a poor decision from Trossard, he just doesn’t quite get the backpass right, and obviously you can’t be offside. Evanilson’s one v one, Saliba – there’s no need to foul him, there’s still a long way to go and so much to do.

“But there’s no way [Ben] White’s getting back, and from another angle from behind the goal you can just see the goalkeeper start to backpedal when he realises he’s not going to get anywhere near the ball.

“The ref gave a yellow card, was told to go to the screen, and that’s where VAR works really well. So definitely the correct decision, and Bournemouth punished them for it.”

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